Full Circle Around a Christmas Tree
by whenjenn
Summary: As one window closes, another one opens. No pairing. Can be whatever you want it to be. A story in the STEEL series, a special shipping for one of my friends and her 'crush.'


AN: written for a friend.

Full Circle Around the Christmas Tree

She walked slowly down the corridor of the school while she replayed the memories of the past week in her mind and a small smile slowly creeped itself onto her face. As she continued reliving her life in color, a black and white image forced itself into her thoughts causing a frown. The memory of that one eventful Christmas saddened her. The pieces of her heart that she managed to sew back slowly ripped themselves apart again. It was such a small thing that caused her the grief. It started with their normal bickering, but it got blown up. They were sitting in her living room setting up her Christmas tree.

"_Dude, you're gonna love your Christmas present. It is absolutely amazing and completely unbeatable to anything else you'll get. Yeah that's right. Be excited!"_

_"Hahaha. I still have to get you your gift and make your card. I'm going later today with some of my friends."_

_"Err..I thought we were going shopping together this Saturday?"_

_"Well, it's just that I-"_

_"Yeah, I get it. I'm not part of your group. Even after all this time I've spent trying to intermingle with you guys. It's cool. Have fun shopping. I'm gonna go."  
"Wait!"_

_"What do you want?"_

_"Maybe we can get a bite for lunch and talk about girl stuff on Sunday?"_

_"Why? So you can change plans on me again? No thanks."_

_"Wait, I didn't mean-"_

_"Yeah, whatever, I didn't mean to spend so much time on you and your little group anyways. Maybe I'll see you around. Maybe I won't. I've had enough crap poured on me. Maybe it's time to go our different ways again. May peace be with you." As she watched her friend since childhood walk away from her, she wanted to make things right, but her body had its own accord and turned never to look back._

_The next day as she saw her friend in the hallway, she lifted a hand to say hi only to see that her friend looked right through her and walked right past. She saw her friend hanging out with a couple friends and went up to them to tell them of a story. Facing her friend, she realized that the friend no longer cared. All the things that she wanted to tell her friend was no longer worth anything. With each passing day, she realized that her friend could no longer be called her friend. The words she wanted to speak, the longing of familiarity in her situation tugged at her heart. She faked a smile and pretended that it was alright that she lost her friend._

_An opportunity presented itself however, one fateful day as she walked into the girls' bathroom, she saw her old friend sitting in a corner crying. Her mind started reeling. She had never seen her ex-friend cry before. Something was terribly wrong. As she went to comfort her old friend, the ex-friend looked up at stared sharp daggers that could have pierced her heart right there._

_"I don't need you. If I needed someone, I would go to someone who cared." The ex-friend dried her eyes, acted as nothing happened, and walked out the bathroom door, and with that, walked out of her life completely._

She still missed her old friend. She missed being able to tell her friend stories about what happened in her life today. She missed being able to laugh next to her. She missed their friendship, and as she passed by the location of the whole scenario, she couldn't help it. The tears started to leak out. At first they came slowly but pretty soon the water flowed like a stream down her cheeks. She had not cried since third grade, and when it finally dawned on her what she was doing, she could at last place the feeling of unrelentless sorrow.

With water dripping from her face, she ran as fast as she could to a place of sanctuary. Not watching where she was going, she bumped into him. Of all the people she had to bump into it had to be him. The one person she had a crush on since she first saw him. He was going to make fun of her and embarrass her. It was a perfect way to make a bad day even worse; however, it didn't seem like he was planning on teasing her. He was being nice? He probably just felt pity for her because of her current state.

"Hey! What's wrong with my fave girl?" As he draped his arm around her, she remembered that he was a ladies' man, but still, a crush since forever.

"Nothing. I'm good. You?"

"I know that you think I'm not the brightest crayon in the box, but c'mon, give the man some credit! I can tell that you're obviously not alright unless having tears streaming down your face is the new way to express joy?" Nope. He was still that sarcastic, egotistical jackass. At least it was an attempt at getting her to smile.

"You, a man? You learn something new everyday!" As she jokingly voiced her thought, her brilliant smile almost managed to reappear on her face. Not going unnoticed by the boy, he squeezed her shoulder and led her into an empty classroom to talk and get a smile to be etched out on her face again.

After completing her story, the boy looked down at the girl in his arms and hugged her with as much love as he could give. She needed it and giving the girl of his dreams a hug had always been one of his goals. Melting into his hug, a smile appeared on her face once again, and she comprehended how true a quote was. _As soon as a window of opportunity shuts, a new one is opened._ The boy saw the girl smiling and gradually falling asleep. Maybe he'd get some sleep now too. He'd mention the mistletoe above them later. The last thing he saw as he fell asleep with a smile on his face was the lights of the Christmas tree flashing brightly.

Hope you enjoyed it Ariel! Hearts, Jenn


End file.
